Draft contract stage

Panda78

Hi everyone,

Trying to work out a time frame here, but my solicitor is not working this week, so really grateful for any advice here please.

Currently 6 weeks since my offer was accepted. My solicitor should have received the draft contract from the vendor's side on 16th Dec. How long is reasonable for me to receive the draft contract for checking, please?

I've done everything i can my side - mortgage offer and survey done etc. Just waiting on the conveyancing.

Thank you.

dgtazzman

Got it from our sol firm within a few days on our first intended purchase, which fell through. Took just under 2 weeks on our current purchase, though they handed our file to another sol in that period, which would have slowed it down.

Should mention this is a new build purchase though, so probably less paperwork to chase up.

Yorkie1

It will partly depend on how your solicitor operates. The contract itself is a short, standard document, with the blanks filled in for everyone's names and the purchase price.

However, you don't mention the other conveyancing documents e.g. property information form, fixtures & fittings form (both from the seller), results of searches. My solicitor waited for most of these to be available, before drafting a formal report on all the results, and sending it to me for my review.

It is possible that some of the above documents may have an impact on whether you wish to proceed, or at which price. For example, information that it has been underpinned, flooded, building works in contravention of regulations / convenants, or you don't have the right to extend across the back as you'd planned because of a sewer pipe.

These can all impact on the conveyancing process and even the purchase price. So the contract is, in a way, a minor piece of documentation until quite late in the process.

Panda78

Yorkie1 wrote: »

It will partly depend on how your solicitor operates. The contract itself is a short, standard document, with the blanks filled in for everyone's names and the purchase price.

However, you don't mention the other conveyancing documents e.g. property information form, fixtures & fittings form (both from the seller), results of searches. My solicitor waited for most of these to be available, before drafting a formal report on all the results, and sending it to me for my review.

It is possible that some of the above documents may have an impact on whether you wish to proceed, or at which price. For example, information that it has been underpinned, flooded, building works in contravention of regulations / convenants, or you don't have the right to extend across the back as you'd planned because of a sewer pipe.

These can all impact on the conveyancing process and even the purchase price. So the contract is, in a way, a minor piece of documentation until quite late in the process.

Thanks for the info. I do not have the other documents either, so i guess my solicitor will wait to send them altogether. Just getting anxious as i will hit the 2 months mark on 12th Jan, although i am in a chain (FTB myself) so i guess it's a fairly nomal pace at the moment.

Thrugelmir

Panda78 wrote: »

Currently 6 weeks since my offer was accepted.

More importantly when did you receive your mortgage offer?

Is the vendor now purchasing themselves? Sitting at the bottom you've triggered a chain. The people above will all be lagging behind you as will have commenced proceedings at a later date.

All part of the joys of house purchase!

Panda78

Thrugelmir wrote: »

More importantly when did you receive your mortgage offer?

Is the vendor now purchasing themselves? Sitting at the bottom you've triggered a chain. The people above will all be lagging behind you as will have commenced proceedings at a later date.

All part of the joys of house purchase!

Formal mortgage offer and survey were done about 2 weeks after my offer was accepted, so all moved quite well there.

Vendor is buying somewhere themselves and have had their offer accepted, so should be going through all this their end.

Kynthia

I'm 7 weeks in to a purchase and my mortgage offer was confirmed and received by my solicitor within 4 weeks. He hasn't sent me the contract but has sent me the fixtures and fittings list and as I result of this I had a query. I've also sent him the proof of where our deposit comes from. So he updated me at the beginning if the week to confirm searches were done and we're just waiting for enquiries to come back from the sellers solicitor. Once these are in he will meet us to discuss all of the findings and check our ID. So perhaps your solicitor will go through the contract in person, or maybe they're waiting for the seller's solicitor to send the fixtures and fittings list or they could both be in the post to you (Chridtmas means everything is taking a week to arrive).

Yorkie1

Panda78 wrote: »

Thanks for the info. I do not have the other documents either, so i guess my solicitor will wait to send them altogether. Just getting anxious as i will hit the 2 months mark on 12th Jan, although i am in a chain (FTB myself) so i guess it's a fairly nomal pace at the moment.

The average purchase takes about 12 weeks, I think.

It is way too early to start getting anxious, particularly with a couple of weeks' break over Christmas.

Kazza_Monkey

15 weeks along here contracts signed back at beginning of November still no news on exchanging as our buyers keep stalling to try and get a reduction on the price news flash for them it ain't gonna happen lol. House going back on market next week at £10k more than they have offered perhaps they might make their minds up then and it doesn't bother us if they walk as we will lose nothing other than the last 15 weeks of messing about. Try not to worry 6 weeks isn't too bad average completion is 12-13 weeks good luck with it x